The bill originally would have committed the Senate to urge the university’s Board of Trustees to reconsider endowment investments in eight companies, including Caterpillar, Lockheed Martin and Motorola. Tuesday’s vote centered on a revised version that pared the list to two.

The failure of the SPER bill capped off several weeks of contentious debate on campus. SPER Co-President Omar Shakir, a law student, had alleged the companies listed in the proposal profit from Israel’s control of the West Bank and “commit human rights abuses and violations of international law.”

Groups on both sides received statements of support from prominent outside voices. On SPER’s side were a pair of Nobel Peace Prize laureates, Northern Irish peace activist Mairead Maguire and Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa. “The Color Purple” author Alice Walker had also called for the measure to be implemented.